Cold war sites

The York cold war bunker

Built in 1961 as part of a nationwide chain of underground facilities (cunningly concealed beneath housing estates), it could accommodate 60 people in air-filtered conditions for three weeks. Now open to visitors.

Hack Green nuclear bunker, Cheshire

Until 1966 this was a long-range radar base and one of the nerve centres of the British Civil Defence System. It was from places such as this that the signal would go out to sound the four-minute warning and launch Britain's nuclear response. Now a permanent museum, exhibits include the UK's largest collection of Geiger counters.

RAF Spadeadam, Cumbria

Once the site of a rocket testing facility so top secret that no plans of it were ever kept. Its role in the British Blue Streak Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile project of the 1950s only came to light four years ago when local loggers stumbled across a missile silo while felling trees.

23 Post, Scotland

Five metres below ground in Ayrshire, tiny 23 Post was manned during the cold war by the Royal Observer Corps as part of the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation that would keep track of the state of the nation after a nuclear attack.